07July12
Philly Jiu-Jitsu Challenge
Result: First Place, Men's Blue Belt Lightweight
Match 1
I was annoyed to see it was a white belt fighting up in the blue belt division. This is tough because if you win, well it was just a white belt, and if you lose...
From standing I worked the ankle pick that I learned back in Texas. I set up two fake guard sits to see how he reacted and he was planting his lead foot heavy, so on the third take I picked it to his half guard. Tried to slide out to side control but it wasn't happening, so I decided to flatten him out and look for submissions from half guard. His neck was exposed so I worked an ezekiel, with a fist not a flat hand, and got the tap.
Match 2
I had seen this guy on Youtube when I was scouting the other grapplers in my division. He looked strong but as soon as we were grip fighting and he pulled me down, to half guard I felt 10x stronger, physically. His half guard was very active and I felt him working a shin sweep that turned into a sort of x-guard sweep, that he got me back to my butt. Without thinking I put my grips in for my baseball bat choke, something that I told myself I shouldn't do in competition anymore because I lost at NAGA for trying to force it. I think I felt so much stronger than this guy that I could afford the risk. Anyway, he wasn't taking the bait right away and kept trying to pass to my left. I defended really poorly by using leg flexibility instead of real jiu-jitsu, like shrimping and moving my hips. Will talk about that later though.
We end up back in open guard with the baseball bat grips in, and I finally am able to bait him with a fake scissor sweep to my right. He passes, I spin and pendulum my legs twice trying to pull him over me and he taps on the way over.
Match 3
Too much to go over in this match; went the 7 minutes, I won on points 14-0. He almost arm barred me at one point, I mean I was a milimeter away from getting my arm lost. Got a cool sweep and worked my standing pass with partial success; partial meaning I was able to stand and open without getting swept, but only got to his half guard. Need to review Trumpetdan's videos more and drill more in the gym.
So I was happy about this, because winning gold for the first time was what I was after big time.
No-Gi First Match
I talked to the guy a little before the match; he was about my size and looked strong, and he was from Flow BJJ under Ken Primola so I knew he might have some good wrestling. As soon as we started and collar tied, I knew he was stronger than me. He immediately pulled me into his guard and was off, working chokes. I really don't even know what happened, it was like a blur and in an instant I was getting choked and tapped. I mean, wow what a fucking monster! This guy was just super slick, very fast and strong and really good. It was almost humorous to me how fast I lost this. I'll upload the video and update here with it.
